3 hurt in Cotabato grenade blast

MATALAM, North Cotabato – At least three persons were injured when still unidentified suspects lobbed a fragmentation grenade at a wake here around 1:25 a.m. Tuesday.

Senior Insp. Sunny Leoncito, town police chief, said the victims – Jeffrey Onoc, 23; Bernie Cristobal, 34; and Benito Samillano, 49; all residents of Barangay Kibodoc here – sustained shrapnel wounds and were immediately rushed to the Cotabato Provincial Hospital in nearby Kidapawan City.

He said the victims were taking rest at the lobby of the Collado Funeral Homes, where they were attending a wake, when the grenade exploded.

It was the second grenade attack in the town in less than a week’s time.

On Friday evening, five people were also injured when a grenade exploded near the town’s rotunda.

READ: Grenade blast hurts 5 in Cotabato

Mayor Oscar Valdevieso has ordered the police to further tighten security, especially since the town will be celebrating its fiesta in the days to come.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said the police should conduct a deeper investigation of the Matalam incidents and pursue the perpetrators.

READ: North Cotabato reels from grenade attacks

Mendoza also said security has to be tightened more in the town as “we cannot discount criminal elements around looking for opportunity to inflict damage and cause pain to people.”

“We call upon everyone to cooperate with our law enforcers and the local government of Matalam in the efforts to secure and protect the locality,” she said. CDG